For the past several months I've been redoing my captiva 240 that was given to me free of charge from my father as he upgraded to a Pearson 36. I've spent countless hours making the boat as live aboard friendly as possible. I know it's a small boat however the amount of time and effort placed into it has made me more and more eager to live aboard. I've been reading alot of live aboard post but haven't seen anyone with a boat as small as mine. I'll be living n south Carolina primarily at a marina except for day sails....any encouraging advice for life aboard would be great

Brad,
Welcome to the asylum and congrats on inheriting a dream. Your 24 is a small boat to live aboard for any length of time. I haven't done it but I'll say that a week on a 25 footer gets cramped. Probably the best thing you can do is upgrade from an icebox to a fridge and install shore power. I'm assuming that you have a slip with power. The next thing would be to install a bimini with screen sides and some exterior lighting. This would add 30% to your living area and give a place to entertain in when it rains. Be sure to consult a qualified electrician on this one. One wrong ground and we're reading about you on Darwin Awards.

For the past several months I've been redoing my captiva 240 that was given to me free of charge from my father as he upgraded to a Pearson 36. I've spent countless hours making the boat as live aboard friendly as possible. I know it's a small boat however the amount of time and effort placed into it has made me more and more eager to live aboard. I've been reading alot of live aboard post but haven't seen anyone with a boat as small as mine. I'll be living n south Carolina primarily at a marina except for day sails....any encouraging advice for life aboard would be great

My wife and I and our dawgs live aboard our 23 footer from mid may to the end of october. You've gotten some good advice so far.
Regarding biminis, looking at the design of your boat, you may be able to use an off-the-shelf setup like one of these:Defender.com Search Results: bimini: Bimini Tops

As far as making the life more livable, I disagree with Don about installing shore power. I feel that on small boats shorepwoer is more of a hindrance than a help. It means having to devote already minimal storage to a shorepower cable, another ppower panel, and all the appliances you feel you can't live without, like a toaster, coffee maker, microwave, etc., etc., which makes a small interior feel more cramped. Instead, install a couple of 40-50 watt solar panels and install LED bulbs to reduce your electrical consumption, increase the insulation around your icebox to make it more efficient.

Go to a nearby furniture store, shoe store, electronics store and ask the stock clerks for any silica gel packs they have lying around- toss them in all of your lockers and toolboxes to fight condensation. Your clothes and tools will thank you.

Thanks for the Bimini site! Yea I think I'm going to run shore power only for the fact that I want a carry on type ac unit as it gets hot here in south Carolina during the summer...other than that I don't have an existing ice box so I'll have to use a cooler if not a mini fridge. As far as other appliances go idk what I'll get if anything I have no sink or stove...ideas?? I do plan to move aboard and will prob by may

What part of South Carolina?
hellow From Beaufort. Good luck with the project. I will begin to live some spring and fall weeks on the East Coast Lady 30 ft C&C. I have shore power now and its nice. S/V East Coast Lady

I live on a 20 foot boat for a week or two at a time so I'm used to being cramped. Living on a 24 foot boat all the time is a good way to simplify your life. My advice: keep it simple and only buy quality stuff. Eventually I'm planning to live on a small boat as well, but no on my 20ft Mirage...

I met 2 folks living on a 21 footer in Culebra. They even had a pair of dogs. Seems like they were doing fine. To me a boat is like a garage or a purse, you just fill it up and most of the stuff you don't "need".

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.